Today, I want to see a *good game of football* - that's a very old fashioned desire I know, but I yearn for the kind of thing that has some *enjoyment* to it. Obviously, I also need the Mighty Tangerine Wizards to be still Wembley bound by the end of it for it to be pleasurable. I don't expect every game to be 5-4 or owt like that, but it feels as if I'm particularly cursed by scrappy, unsatisfying, hesitant football this year. It's not just us (though it's mainly us) as whenever I watch a game on telly or listen to one on the radio, it never ever seems to be an end to end spectacular or a closely matched feast of football, but rather, the kind of attritional punch up where one fella wins because the other fella trips over his own laces. after they've traded a few half hearted flailing body blows in a drizzly grey backstreet by some overflowing waste bins... This, however, is the FA Cup, this is all or nothing, this is 'might as well give it a go' stuff. If I don't find some fun today, when will I?)
Ian Evatt's at the wheel so there's something new to absorb. I wasn't really all in on Evo before he was appointed but it's lovely to hear words like 'detail' and 'clarity' coming out of the squad when they talk about the manager. He's spoken of 'fearless football' and whilst talk is cheap, he's already given more of an impression of intent and purpose in a few days than Steve, Steve and Steve managed in 3 months. I hope Evatt will take this game as what it is - a chance to win a game of football and potentially put a bit of glory and adventure back into the somewhat dulled recent reputation of Blackpool FC - we're literally the most 'cup' team you can think of, never mind being the victors in the most legendary cup final of all, we never win leagues, we always go up via knockout football.
So today, lets get the ball down, play it forward, give our best and see what happens...
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Ian Evatt has picked a side with no midfield. Well, technically there's Lee Evans but some recent weeks, that would actually be -1 midfielders. I like it though. We've got the skillful players out there, two strikers and Evans to knit the defence to the midfield in a little hole of his own where he can do his own thing rather than shout at anyone else.
We're dominant for the opening spell. Domination doesn't equal many clear cut chances and there's something a bit Critchball about how we're good at getting the ball up the pitch to the final third, but less good at turning that into an attempt on goal. Lets not be knobheads about it though, we're infinitely better set up and look like we've done something in the week that is loosely based on football as opposed to sat about doing Sudoko, picking wax out of our ears and playing darts whilst the Steves have several cups of tea and read the paper. We move the ball about well, we look like we know where each other are and we're in command.
The goal isn't a classic, in fact, it's a result of a bit of fortune as a long ball towards Fletch is missed by the big man (quell surprise!) but also by his marker and comes through to Scott Banks - he storms forward, fiddles it to Bowler who in turn fiddles it fletch who has shown alertness to get into the box quickly. There ain't nobody better than Super Ashley Fletcher and though, from a distance it looks like he takes two attempts to stab it home, stab it home he does.
Cue rampaging waves of Tangerine pressure, evoking the golden era of Evatt's playing days...
Maybe not. Cue us gradually losing grip of the game. Banks picks up the weirdest booking ever for catching a ball that is sailing over his head and out of play. Scunthorpe slowly being to come into it. It's not a tsunami of molten iron(s) but they force BPF to claim a few crosses, they win a few corners, they create a bit of havoc as Casey has to make a really sharp block at the near post after we get all mixed up and the ball is cleared back to them, just as BPF is about to fall on it and then they miss a really good far post chance where a looping ball finds a spare man. They're putting pressure on the carded Banks who doesn't look comfortable going backwards.
What started as positive football has become the fragile Blackpool we've seen so many times in recent months. We do make a bit more though, Bloxham missing the best of our opportunities, slapping a chance teed up perfectly for him by Bowler well wide when a player not so desperate for something to happen for him might have taken it more calmly and at very least, worked the keeper.
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At half time, my main thought is that I quite like what I've seen but that we sorely miss a whippet of a striker playing beyond Ash Fletcher and really pressurising the defence. Bloxham isn't that man - he's definitely looking more like a footballer and less like labouring peasant from the middle ages trudging his way miserably back from the local well laden down with buckets - but he's not really a whippet with explosive pace and I think with one of those, we'd have likely carved them open more often.
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CJ is on for Banks which makes sense given we can ill afford another suspension. International football's CJ Hamilton is, however, not able to turn the flow of the game back towards us - in fact, Scunthorpe start this half very well, whistling a shot close by BPF's post almost straight away and working him several times after that. They're the side on top and we look flimsy and flustered. The nadir comes when (I think) Casey slices a backpass intended for BPF heavily and wildly and the keeper rushes to try and prevent a corner and whilst he succeeds in that, he only manages to push the ball back into the path of a Scunthorpe forward. Chaos reigns as BPF tries to tackle him like an outfielder, the ball is crossed, we somehow scramble it away without a keeper and then, just as the keeper returns we manage to hack it out of his grasp, back to Scunthorpe who nearly score possibly from a deflection off one of our players back into the goal. It's car crash stuff and it's in danger of undermining the positive signs we've seen.
The ref isn't helping things, giving petty fouls and penalising us for breathing. A lone voice in the crowd forcefully accuses the ref of being a 'paedo' - which might be a bit harsh, but he's given some weird calls and this, for better or worse, is the sort of thing people will shout at you if you prance around making a show of yourself in neon blue lycra.
Evo has had enough and makes sweeping changes, bringing on Coulson, Brown and Honeyman for Lyons, Hansson and Bowler. Lyons had a tough afternoon against an opponent who drew a foul every time the Irishman looked at him, Hansson had some nice touches when we were on top but looked peripheral when not and Bowler fizzled encouragingly a few times and showed willingness to block and chase but he's not catching fire and still seems to be missing the instant change of pace he had at his best. His quality is worth persisting with as you see in moments he's gifted beyond any other player on the pitch, but in others, he looks lost within his new role - but then, he was ever thus and my tangerine heart remains firmly set on the electric one.
We are better for the changes. Firstly, we stop them coming at us and secondly, we get at them again. There's a gorgeously crisp set of return passes between Honeyman and Fletcher which are from a different level of football, there's several moments of Bloxham looking something like the Bloxham we want to see, fighting his way onto the ball, bearing down at goal, having a go and being denied. There's CJ twice running from deep and having a go at goal, one of his efforts hit like a rocket would have broken the net if a defender hadn't got in the way, there's an Ash Fletcher effort saved at the near post and another later one quite stunningly clawed out by the keeper who is falling and manages to throw his lower hand up and get a strong palm on it and there's Lee Evans hitting a free kick from about 20 yards out which seems for all the world to have gone in but somehow streaks by the post and smashes into the hoardings instead.
It's not all us - Scunthorpe's fans are making a decent noise - there is a particular irony in them considering Blackpool a shithole and wanting to go home, but they back their side very well and they're nearly rewarded towards the end as the game becomes joyously (if a little unnervingly) end to end stuff. Casey is cynical as we get caught out and hacks one of them down in brutal fashion for the sake of the bigger picture. The ref/alleged nonce gives a yellow. This is exactly the game I wanted, (provided we hold out) - they give as good as they get in the latter stages, and the closest they come is a glanced free header which drifts a yard or so wide which really, they should have done better with. The last 10 or so minutes have become basketball and that's given what was really quite painfully sedate at the outset a good atmosphere and sated my desire for some football played for the simple reason that football is fun.
Terry Bondo comes on and Bondomania grips the Kop. If Bondo scores... we're on the pitch. Sadly, we're not but the great man does manage a spot of shithousery in the corner in his brief but glorious cameo and we see the game out.
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Was it perfect - no, not in a million years? Were there still worrying things about us? Yep.
Was it *better* though?
It really was. The challenge Ian Evatt faces is huge. He's taking a side who are light years behind where they should be, ravaged by injury, with very few options and is basically giving them an in season pre-season as he attempts to solve the problems that we have - and those problems are pretty much everything about us. I've said this before, but it's not just my opinion that we were *shite* under Bruce, we were statistically, factually, undeniably dreadful at just about everything you can measure. We couldn't pass, couldn't tackle, couldn't defend, couldn't create. These are not my words Carol, but the words of 'Insufferably Dull Bottle Top Glasses Wearing Stats Nerd Who Has No Friends Other Than The Numbers Monthly' magazine. (5.95 at all good newsagents)
What we saw today was imperfect, sure, but we saw a side that in reasonable length spells carved out multiple chances. We saw, at points, passing movements that lasted for more than 3 or 4 touches before we hoofed it long. At one point I counted a 25 pass move. So fucking what we went back to the keeper a few times. It's 2025 for fucks sake. That's what teams do. We played to a plan and when that plan stopped working, we rejigged it and played to a different plan. We showed some commitment, some effort, some character and we looked like a team who knew what we were expected to do individually and collectively.
Is a narrow win in the first round of the cup against a non-league side (albeit a half decent one who I think could definitely hack Div 2 on this showing) the cure for all ill? Of course it isn't - but it's a step on a journey and the positives were there. Horsfall continues to make the decision to place him in a deep freeze pretty much as soon as we'd signed him look mystifying. Lee Evans played as well as I've seen him play in a long, long time today, he showed authority, he spread play beautifully at times, his set pieces weren't awful and he was vaguely reminiscent of the commanding player we last saw sometime before that Wrexham game in the fog last Christmas- long may that continue as I love this Lee Evans as much as the other Lee Evans has fucking done my head in for ages - perhaps something to do with having players in front of him moving as opposed to everyone squashed in deep. Tom Bloxham put in another shift and the effort and experience will do him good. BPF, (if you wipe out the corner prevention calamity) was solid Ash Fletcher continues to impress me as a striker/playmaker hybrid. Ashworth also, like Horsfall, played in a way that makes a mockery of his non-selection. The three later subs all added quality, Coulson will suit Evatt's style far more than playing as a tradition full back, Honeyman managed to start about three near fights whilst he was on the pitch which is exactly what you want him to do and Jordan Brown is just about immaculate and born to play in the role Evatt needs him to.
Does that add up to 'being able to win every single game we play from now on and rampage to an unlikely promotion?' - I doubt it at this point- but we've at least added a bit more to the shallow foundations we've been digging since Bruce left, shown we can attack, shown we can battle and demonstrated, in two games in a row, that we can go up against an opposition, match them for effort and come out on top. A shockingly out of form Peterborough and Scunthorpe United of the National League aren't Cardiff City - but we've done some of the basics and after a season where we haven't done those things, I'm not fucking complaining at improvement, but drinking it in like cold iced water in the dryest of deserts.
Ian Evatt is not a miracle worker - he's a coach, a manager, someone working a process and for the first time in ages, I can actually see evidence of the manager's work on the pitch, that work resembles something from within the last decade of football thinking. Most positively, regardless of the individual weaknesses, the errors in execution, the missing attributes, there's a palpable buy in from the squad in trying their best to carry out the game plan. Running hard, putting in blocks, moving when we've got the ball... That's in and of itself, a massive positive and a thousand times more joyful that watching an out of form, confused looking, fed up bunch of players begrudgingly, sulkily and half heartedly carry out a painfully outdated and lazily thrown together undercooked mess that barely deserves the word 'tactic' applied.
So yeah, I'll take today. Enjoyed it.
Most of all though, I fucking love the FA Cup and we're still in the velvet bag. Bring on Round 2.
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